Like House Republicans, Archie and Edith Bunker yearned for an earlier, simpler era that never really existed. Well, Archie more than Edith. And, at least he was very funny. Congress…not so much. (Credit: CBS Television)

“Boy the way Beatles played
Songs from Sgt. Pepper’s parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days….”

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

In this edition of “Palazzopalooza: We’ll Bamboozle Ya!,” we look at how the House’s nostalgia for the past is preventing it from dealing with the realities of the present.

Today’s conservative Republicans are by far the most nostalgic of Americans. They yearn for a earlier, simpler time when America was a far more perfect union. Unfortunately, their visions are often rather selective, ignoring unpleasant realities of the past and the limitations of the present day.

This is, sadly, what we see in the NASA budget the House passed last week. Just how far in the past are Congressmen living? Decades.

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Liquid oxygen/gaseous hydrogen rocket injector assembly built using additive manufacturing technology is hot-fire tested at NASA Glenn Research Center’s Rocket Combustion Laboratory in Cleveland. (Credit: NASA Glenn Research Center)

CLEVELAND, July 11, 2013 (NASA PR) — NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne of West Palm Beach, Fla., recently finished testing a rocket engine injector made through additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing.

This space technology demonstration may lead to more efficient manufacturing of rocket engines, saving American companies time and money.

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NASA engineers and contractors conduct static loads testing of the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) Fairing Assembly, flight hardware that will be used to cover and protect the Orion crew module during Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), scheduled for September 2014. (Credit:
Lockheed Martin)

LANGLEY, Virginia (NASA PR) — NASA engineers and contractors have begun tests on NASA’s Launch Abort System (LAS) Fairing Assembly, flight hardware that will be used to cover and protect the Orion crew module during Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), scheduled for September 2014.

Similar to the material of a graphite tennis racquet, the LAS fairing is a lightweight composite structure weighing 3,000 pounds that protects the capsule from the environment around it, whether it’s heat, wind or acoustics.

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Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin, GKAU head Yuri Alexeev, and Kazkosmos head Talgat Musabayev meet in Yalta. (Credit: Kazkosmos)

Yalta, Ukraine (Kazkosmos PR) — In the sidelines of the meeting in Yalta representatives of executive authorities of CIS member states on cooperation in the space sector held a trilateral meeting of heads of space agencies of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

Chairman of the National Space Agency of Kazakhstan Talgat Musabayev, the head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, and chairman of the National Space Agency of Ukraine (GKAU) Yuri Alexeev after a discussion of issues of cooperation and the prospects for the implementation of the project at the Baikonur Cosmodrome Baiterek on the basis of the launch vehicle (LV) Zenit signed a joint protocol.

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Range CBA Commercial Engagement
Agency: Department of the Air Force
Office: Air Force Space Command

Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Launch and Range Requirements Division (HQ AFSPC/A5R) intends to hold a public forum to discuss a potential future concept to convert the Eastern Range (in part or whole) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) from an Air Force managed range to an FAA-licensed commercial launch site (i.e., a spaceport).

The concept explores an approach where launch programs (U.S, commercial, civil, and national security space sector launch and test and evaluation (T&E) programs) contract for support services as needed for their missions from an FAA-licensed commercial launch site operator that manages the transportation and utility infrastructure, support services, and range capabilities as a business.  This effort is directed by AFSPC Commander as part of a larger Range Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA).

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NASA PR — Managers in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate have initiated a formal request to change the mission plan for the agency’s first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), Exploration Mission (EM) 1 in 2017. The flight will carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to a deep retrograde orbit near the moon, a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where an asteroid could be relocated as early as 2021.

NASA PR: Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is putting its Dream Chaser flight vehicle through a series of ground tests at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California in preparation for upcoming captive-carry and free-flight tests. During two tow tests, a pickup truck pulled the Dream Chaser flight vehicle on Dryden’s concrete runways to validate the performance of the spacecraft’s nose skid, brakes, tires and other systems. The company has performed […]

Continuing our look at the House’s spending plan for NASA, this edition of “Palazzo Vision: $3 Billion is Not Enough” examines provisions that would prevent NASA from ever canceling the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion without prior Congressional approval while immediately freeing up hundreds of millions of dollars more to spend on the two programs.

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Henry May is a NASA Launch Vehicle Systems lead in the Commercial Crew Program office at the Kennedy Space Center. (Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann)

By Bob Granath
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

Henry May grew up on Florida’s Space Coast. From his home he watched rockets lift off from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. At the time, his father helped launch astronauts to the moon as part of the Apollo Program. May now is a member of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), a team that is developing new ways for the next generation of space explorers to travel to low-Earth orbit.

May, the Launch Vehicle Systems lead for Boeing, is working in an effort to design transportation for astronauts to the International Space Station. His job focuses on ensuring the partner’s spacecraft will integrate with the designated launch vehicle.

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Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

A note from the Space Frontier Foundation:

This year, the US Congress is working to re-authorize NASA, which includes re-visiting the funding authorization and overall strategy.  As part of that, the House Science Subcommittee on Space produced a draft bill recently.  On the issue of Commercial Crew, the draft bill showed promise, as it authorized $700 Million for the program.  However, the subcommittee put ISS acces in danger by requiring the program to be run using a cost contract, rather than a commercial fixed-price contract, or even better — a Space Act Agreement.  Fortunately, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who is Vice Chair of the full Science Committee, is pushing back.

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